Garden waste collections resume 2nd March but please check your bin!

As garden waste bin collections resume on 2 March residents are being urged to check their brown bins carefully for any contamination before they put them out for their first collection.

Householders are reminded that plastic bags or any other plastic, glass, soil, stones and rubble must not be included and any contaminated bins will be rejected.

Councillor Graham MacKenzie, Chair of the Council’s Community Services Committee, explained that last year there was a high level of contamination in bins that had been left sitting over the winter period. He said: “It may have been tempting to make use of the empty bin, particularly over Christmas, to deposit any surplus refuse. However if any of this material ends up in the compost stream it will fail to meet the PAS 100 standard resulting in the material being treated as landfill at considerable cost to the Council. There is an £80 per tonne tax on landfilled material so we’re asking everyone to please carefully check your bin before you put it out.”

The garden waste bin is for grass cuttings, hedge trimmings, twigs and small branches, flowers, plants and weeds only. Notifiable weeds such as ragwort and Japanese knotweed, animal waste material and kitchen waste should not be included.

During the first couple of weeks of the collections the Waste Awareness Team will be out monitoring the garden waste collections and carefully checking bins for buried contamination. Any contaminated bins found will be stickered and left uncollected.

For more information on the garden waste collection service, details of what can and can’t go in the brown bin and to view your collection dates or download a calendar go to www.highland.gov.uk/recycle

The Council is hosting a live Facebook chat on the theme of Recycling tomorrow from 6pm – 7pm so if anyone has any questions they’d like to put to a Waste Management Officer or any suggestions and points they want to flag up, they can take part by going to The Highland Council’s Facebook page at 6pm.